For over seven years, this scholar served as Associate Professor and Researcher in the University of Bouaké’s Department of Anthropology and Sociology. His life changed dramatically with the violence and civil unrest that was unleashed following Côte d’Ivoire’s disputed November 2010 elections between incumbent president Laurent Gbagbo and president-elect Alassane Ouattara. With his country gripped by civil war and facing targeted threats due to his profession and relation to the same Bété ethnic group as the former president, the scholar was forced to flee with his family to Togo in early 2011. Unable to return to Côte d’Ivoire and with his situation in Togo precarious, he applied for Scholar Rescue Fund support. Now safely on campus at Smith College, he is participating in the College’s Visiting Scholars Program. In addition to continuing his research on sustainable development in West Africa, he will teach a French course at Smith and a course in anthropology at Amherst College.
Read the full story, as well as stories on past featured scholars, on the Scholar Rescue Fund website: www.scholarrescuefund.org/pages/about-us/featured-scholar.php.
IIE
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